Luxury, Rap: Jay-Z Confirms Carnegie Hall Gigs

Jay-Z has already sold out two of the Empire State's landmark venues, Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden, and next February he'll conquer another New York institution: Carnegie Hall. The rapper announced today that he'll perform a pair of shows at the famed theater on February 6 and 7, Rap Radar reports. The concerts will benefit the United Way of New York City and Jay-Z's own Shawn Carter Scholarship Foundation.

"It's every artist's dream to play a venue as legendary as Carnegie Hall," Jay-Z said in a statement. "The fact that I can use the arts and my talent to benefit the education of the next generation of artists, entrepreneurs, and great thinkers makes for a legendary night." Unfortunately, unless you're obscenely wealthy, you will not be a part of this legendary night at the 1,800-capacity venue: Tix will first be made available to benefactors on December 12 for $500 to $2,500. After that, a very limited number of normal-people-price tickets will go on sale to the public on January 30. Start practicing those Ticketmaster CAPTCHAs now.

Carnegie Hall usually hosts philharmonic events or incredible violinists visiting from overseas, but a fair share of contemporary music has managed to sneak into 121-year-old venue. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and the Beach Boys, to name a few, all performed there, and the concert hall was setting of one of Phil Ochs' more infamous concerts. (His 1970 show there was probably one of the few gigs ever to be shortened by a phoned-in bomb threat.) Lauryn Hill and the Roots have also performed at the landmark theater. In fact, Jay-Z can't even brag to his friends that he's the first rapper from his borough to rhyme on the Carnegie stage, since Brooklyn's own MC Lyte beat him there.

Hova will also, most likely, add another metropolitan-area venue to his checklist next year when he performs at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, the new home of the Nets starting in 2012.